DIY Beaded Minnow

I usually get to fish (okay, really just tagging along with my nephew and his buddies) when I visit Lake of the Woods in Ontario. This beaded blunt nose minnow is inspired by all the little fish I have to hook on the lines in hopes that a muskie will show up. As a reference, I would point to the amazing embroidery artist Lera Petunina and her collection of fish.

Supplies:

generally a bit of a stash buster....

felt
various beads (large, small, bugle, etc.)
pearls
sequin of different sizes
embroidery thread
regular thread
wire (paperclip wire works too)
mod podge of contact cement glue

Tools:

embroidery hoop
(embroidery) scissors
needle (small enough to be threaded and work with your beads)
embroidery needle

1) first take the wire and make a tiny loop, big enough for a needle and thread to go through. Then bend the wire around the tip of your index finger. once you are happy with the "U" shape snip it off and create a tiny loop on the other end. repeat this step so you have 2.

2) prep your felt in the embroidery hoop

3) add the eye: one medium sequin and one black bead. From the back of your felt, sew through the sequin, then through the black bead, then back through the sequin and felt.

4) the cheek is similar to the eye, but with a large sequin and a pearl

5) add one of your wire parts to "cradle" the cheek. One of the loops should start just below the eye

6) add the second wire piece, this time for the gills

7) fill in the gill area with light coloured beads, smaller than the cheek pearl

8) I used clear bugle beads to start refining the shape of the fish

9) adding more beads. I used images of blunt nosed minnows as reference

10) if you need to make stripes of the same beads/ colour, an easy way is to thread all the beads, passing the tread through the felt at the end of the beads, then going back and securing the beads with stitches between each bead.

11) once the beading is done, finish off the fins with embroidery

12) add a layer of mod podge (or glue) to the back (wrong) side of the felt to secure you stitches.

13) cut out the fish from the felt, leaving about 3mm of felt around the edges

you can now use the fish to embellish clothes or accessories. I have made the following with my minnows:

barrette
key chain
embellished a sweater

Comments

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